Conducting and photoconducting organic and inorganic polymers are becoming increasingly important for optical, electronic, photoelectric and electrochemical applications. Polymers often offer substantial improvements in processability, cost, and properties, both physical and chemical. One property which both polymers and nonpolymers lack to a degree which prevents their use in many important applications is thermal stability. The maximum operational temperature for some conducting and photoconducting polymers and crystals is about 125.degree. C. but for most the maximum temperature is well below 100.degree. C.
Formation of thin films is important in opto-electronic applications because the deposition of thin films on a substrate alters the opto-electronic properties, e.g., photosensitivity, light transmission, electron transmission, and photovoltaic efficiency. Processing thin films is greatly improved if the material sublimes, thereby permitting vacuum deposition of the film.
The opto-electronic properties and thermal stability of phthalocyanine polymers and dyes indicate that these materials would be useful in optical and electronic applications if their extremely low electrical conductivity could be increased. Iodination of some phthalocyanines greatly increases the conductivity of these materials. Excellent conductivity for a single crystal of nickel phthalocyanine iodide (NiPcI.sub.1.0) has been reported in C. J. Schramm et al., Science 200, 47-8 (1978). Conductivities of pressed pellets of metallophthalocyanine iodides (MPcI.sub.x) wherein M is Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, or Pt, are reported in J. L. Petersen et al., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 99, 286-8 (1977). Upon iodine incorporation the electrical conductivity of films of nickel phthalocyanine is reported to be substantially increased in W. A. Orr and S. C. Dahlberg, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 101, 2875-7 (1979).
The solid-state properties and utilizibility of these metallomacrocycles depend, to a large degree, on the kind and degree of stacking that occurs with these macrocycles. K. F. Schoch, et al., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 101, 7071-3 (1979) studied metallophthalocyanine moieties covalently linked to a "face-to-face" orientation by oxygen. The resulting polymer (MPcO).sub.n wherein M is silicon, germanium, or tin was iodinated to increase the conductivity. Although the conductivity of [(MPcO)(I).sub.x ].sub.n is much higher than (MPcO).sub.n, the best conductivity reported is only 0.2 ohm .sup.-1 cm.sup.-1.
Stacked fluorinated polyphthalocyanines represented by the formula: (PcMF).sub.n have been reported in (1) J. P. Linsky Dissertation Abstract International Section B, 31 (1970) 3242B and (2) T. R. Paul Dissertation Abstract International Section B, 32 (1972) 4471B. The materials have extremely low conductivities and no successful modification, e.g., iodination has been reported.
Fluorinated polyphthalocyanine condensation resins have been reported in U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,458, issued on June 24, 1980 to Keller et al. These resins, while posessing exceptional structural strength, had very low conductivities.